Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 – 3 Step Overclocking Guides

Introduction

So many users are searching around the net these days looking for advice about which components to purchase and how to overclock. This guide is not meant as a comparison between AMD, and Intel. This guide assumes you’ve already decided to purchase an Intel based system, and takes you to the next step…..deciding which one. The emphasis here is on value, overclocking, and overall system performance. If you want to continue searching out other opinions, please consider each suggestion with caution. Some will undoubtedly be great, some will not. This isn’t a comparison test, but a simple overview of the different choices from Intel and their inherent strengths and weaknesses.

Overclocking guides

Once you’ve made your decision and purchased your system, the overclocking guides below will help you gather a better understanding of how your system works, and will give you a very methodical approach to overclocking it. If you have not yet made your purchase decision, continue to read below to assist you with your decision. After you have selected your hardware, please come back to visit the overclocking guide pertinent to you.

Micro-Architecture

When the Nehalem Micro-architecture was introduced to the world in the fall of 2008, everyone took notice. The Intel Core series of CPUs that started with Conroe in 2006 was very strong, but I’m not sure anybody anticipated that Intel would be able to be successful with two micro-architecture generations in a row. So, when Nehalem first hit the scene, it was a shock and awe campaign. Not only did Intel have the performance to stay well ahead of the competition, they actually improved on the previous generation so greatly, that a large quantity of users already on the stellar Core 2 Duo/Quad platform were compelled to upgrade without skipping a generation. Since AMD has not had anything competitive from an outright performance standpoint, Intel has cornered the high end market for quite a while. What follows is a brief look at the various platforms that Intel has introduced since Nehalem’s release.

First we have the Nehalem family which consists of 45nm quad core CPU’s

4-core Bloomfield (Core i7 920 to i7 975) – socket 1366

4-core Lynnfield (Core i5 750 to i7 875K) – socket 1156

Next is the Westmere family which consists of 32nm, dual core, quad core (Xeon only), and hex core CPU’s

There are many other versions of CPUs designed for the enterprise (Xeon) and the mobile markets. I will not include any details about them within this guide; some of the Xeons are virtually identical to the desktop counterparts and may be worth considering. For more details, please see this wiki about Xeon CPUs. The mobile equivalents won’t even fit into the desktop sockets, so I won’t spend any time on them.

Clarkdale

All Clarkdale CPUs feature two pieces of silicon; the first chip contains the dual CPU cores and L3 cache, it is manufactured on a 32nm node. The second chip is the graphics core, memory controller, and PCIe controller and is manufactured on a 45nm node. The pictures below should help you understand a little better.

Clarkdale package

Clarkdale die map

The new 32nm lithography is very exciting and powerful, and overclocks very well, unfortunately with Clarkdale, the 32nm CPU is tethered to the older technology which creates some unique challenges when overclocking. The memory controller is dual channel and officially supports up to DDR3-1066. Memory and graphics performance are both fairly limited with Clarkdale. If you plan to run multiple graphics cards, I’d recommend an X58/LGA1366 based system.

Core i3 530, 540, 550

Core i5 650, 660, 661, 670, and 655K

These CPU’s are very similar to the i3’s but add Intel® Turbo Boost Technology. The i5 655K has an unlocked multiplier for maximum freedom in overclocking. The i5 661 differs from all other Clarkdale based CPU’s because its integrated graphics core runs at 900MHz instead of the standard 733MHz in the rest.

Lynnfield

These CPUs are manufactured on the 45nm process. They have dual channel IMCs and PCIe controllers built into the CPU die. This is the closest Intel has come so far to integrating an entire system on a single piece of silicon for the desktop market (that will all change next year with Sandy Bridge, but that discussion is for another time).

Lynnfield die map

Each core has its own 256KB of L2 cache, and all four cores share 8MB of L3 cache. The memory controller is dual channel and officially supports up to DDR3-1333. Lynnfield CPU’s are known for their extremely high memory speeds and for very good value in the quad core marketplace. Similar to Clarkdale, I would recommend to anyone interested in multiple graphics cards, that you consider an X58/LGA1366 based system for additional PCIe bandwidth, just like Clarkdale, these CPU’s have only 16 PCIe lanes built in. All Lynnfield CPUs include Intel® Turbo Boost Technology.

Well, I was playing with computers ever since my Dad got a Commodore 64 when I was 6 years old (1986), when I was 10 (1990) he bought a custom build 486DX33, and I was in love. Mostly back then I was just a kid playing games, but my fascination with computers had a start. Because I had no money of my own, I was stuck playing with my Dad's computers, and really couldn't "play" too much. So in 1998, the year I graduated, I spent some of my college savings to by a "computer for school", haha. It had two Voodoo2 12MB 3D accelerators in it, so you can imagine how much school work was done on it ;-) It had an AMD K6-233 that I had a really mild OC on, but my custom computer builder friend Aaron had done all the work. So I can't really take the credit there. My fascination with graphics just kept growing and growing over the years, and I was constantly in a struggle to keep my games looking as sharp and smooth as possible. OCing played a big role.
My whole world was rocked in 2004 when I was deployed to Iraq as a US Army soldier. The whole year I was there I had a cheap IBM Thinkpad R40 with a 2GHz Celeron, 1GB DDR-333 RAM, a 60GB 4200RPM HDD, and ATI Radeon Mobility graphics (same technology as a 7000 series with only 16MB of memory). It started out rough as I was really into Command and Conquer Generals at the time, and the machine would only play the C&C slide show LOL. So, I downloaded PowerStrip, and OC'ed the GPU by 40%...amazingly, the game was playable!
Things changed dramatically in 2007 when I met a guy named Matt while I was stationed in Japan. He introduced me to www.ocforums.com, and the "Benchmarking Team" there. I had not had much interest in benchmarking previously, I always though of myself as more practical. But, I thought I'd play along and I joined the team. My first introduction to an actual competition was was is "The Raptor Pit", "Forum Warz 2008" in the spring of 2008. I was running a Q6600 and an 8800GTX. With air cooling I was able to bench my Q6600 at over 4GHz, and tore up the competition in my class. Overall OCF won the Forum War in 2007, Winter and Summer of 2008, and 2009...that means five in a row. I was not part of the first one in 2007, but the four since then, I have participated in. After winning the 2008 Winter and Summer Warz, Tom's Hardware Guide announced they were looking for nominations for individuals to compete in their first ever international overclocking competition, called "Overdrive". I was nominated, and chosen to compete in the North American semi-finals in Los Angeles in November 2008. I was placed on "Team IRONMODS" as they only had two guys, yet three man teams were allowed. We won the semi-finals in LA, and our prize was a trip to Paris the following month, to compete with the best in the world.
The following month, Ton, Jake, and myself flew to Paris as "Team USA" to face off against the best from Taiwan, France, Germany, and Italy. It was a very intense competition, but after two heated days of battle (16 hours of benching), we emerged the victors. Amidst our celebration, Ton and Jake officially invited me to join "Team IRONMODS" on a permanent basis, and I graciously accepted. Ton, aka "TiTON", is a world renown case moder, and is also very well known for some of the AMD overclocking he has done. Jake, aka "CPT.Planet", is a genius overclocker, and a really fun guy. The team has a great synergy when working together, we really have complementary styles.
After winning the world championship in December 2008 things were a bit quite for a couple months, then in the spring of 2009 I received an invitation to the 2nd annual Gigabyte Open Overclocking Championship "GOOC". I would compete in the North American semi-final in LA, where the winner would win a ticket to the world championship in Taipei Taiwan during CES in June 2009. The competition was tough with 14 of the best from North America gathering for a 1 on 1 competition of OCing. But once again, I completed the competition well, and rose above the others. I won 1st place and the trip to the world finals in Taipei.
My luck ran dry in Taipei where I started off with a bad motherboard, and went through 5 more during the course of the competition due to various reasons. Despite the poor finish in Taipei, I have high hopes to redeem myself next year.

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